A £5m bid for major events strategy could create 33 jobs in Sheffield

A £5m major events strategy could create 333 full-time jobs and give a tenfold return on investment, a businessman said.

Yuri Matischen told SheffEx that promoting a ‘Big 10’ annual events could give a huge boost to the leisure and tourism sector – as it had for Melbourne.

The Australian city has a global event every month, starting with horse racing in January, the Open tennis in January and a cricket test match on Boxing Day.

Mr Matischen, chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership’s leisure sector group, said he was bidding for £5m of devolution monies from the LEP for a similar scheme.

It could include World Snooker in May, Tramlines music festival in July, Docfest documentary festival, the St Leger horse racing festival in September, Cliffhanger climbing weekend, L’Eroica vintage bike festival in Bakewell, and the University of Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind.

Mr Matischen, managing director of Sheffield sports firm MLS Contracts, said: “We have a huge story, things we can shout about – but in a cost-effective way.

“The Big 10 could put us on a global stage.

“Events we own and run can be affordable and bring great economic returns, on average 10-to-one on the investment.

“We are abjectly poor at promoting ourselves and blowing our own trumpet in the way that Manchester and Birmingham do.

“Liverpool Vision is an organisation which includes inward investment and marketing all working together.”

Some 90 businesses had said they would invest in a strategy, he added.